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Toulouse Hammer Down And Out Vikings

As far as disasters are concerned this is right up there with Vesuvius as Widnes simply imploded in this battle with the gallant French team .

On paper the Vikings are able of offer A set of experienced players who have plied their trade far and wide, yet this defeat is likely to have repercussions for many of them.

Defeats already by Salford and London meant a big effort was anticipated against a Toulouse team with few household names.
The Writing was on the wall however in the early minutes when the intelligent Jonathan Ford created a gap for Mark Kheirallah for the first of his two scores.
Widnes did have a brief period of interest when Krisnan Inu was put through a gap by Joe Mellor and then Harrison Hansen went in at the corner. Recent signing Hansen plays with heart and sole and he is one player who can hold his head high.
With Inu’s conception Widnes found themselves 10-6 up with all to play for.
Toulouse however are a clever and tactically aware team and they hit back with Kheirallah’s second score from a beautiful Ford Kick. shortly after the very impressive Chris Centrone picked up a loose ball to outpace everyone from seventy meters .
With both scores converted by Kheirallah Toulouse were leading by 18-10 and looking the better team.

The Vikings kept plugging away and scrum half Tom Gilmour put Weller Hauraki through a gap with Inu again converting.
That was the extent of what Widnes had to offer and with Gil Dudson off injured Vesuvius erupted and the Vikings were laid to rest. You would have expected fire and brimstone from a team trying to maintain a proud super league position, but the rest of the game was about Toulouse and their own aspirations .
Further French tries came from Ford , Centrone and Stan Robin and whilst Lloyd White pulled one back the final score came from William Barthau with Kheirallah converting for the 7th time in front of 3000 passionate home supporters .
Toulouse look a clever team and with Mark Kheirallah , Chris Centrone and Jonathan Ford they have 3 very talented backs
Widnes fans will be dismayed by the extent of this defeat which leave the Vikings rooted to 8th position in the super 8’s with difficult games to play

Not making the million pound game is a very real possibility for a lack lustre Widnes team but on this showing Toulouse could surprise again in the coming weeks

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